Aug 24, 2008

Guadua chacoensis occurs in northern Uruguay, northern Argentina, southeastern Bolivia, and southern Paraguay and is one of the three southeasternmost species of the genus. It is frequently misidentified as Guadua angustifolia. The species was described in 1918 by the Argentinian botanist Nicolas Rojas Acosta (1873-1947) as Bambusa chacoensis. Its common name 'Tacuaruzú', distinguishes it from two species that occur sympatrically: Guadua paraguayana, 'Picanilla', and Guadua trinii 'Tacuara brava'. Guadua chacoensis is a woody, and thorny bamboo. Rhizomes are pachimorph. Culms are 10-20 m tall x 8-15 cm in diameter, green, erect below and arching apically. Internodes are hollow. Nodes are solitary. Buds are solitary, covered by a prophyll, positioned at 2-4 mm above the nodal line. Culm leaves are coriaceous, light brown to stramineous, deciduous, the blade 1/3-1/4 as large as the sheath. The sheath is 20-50 cm long x 8-30 cm wide, abaxially strigose to glabrescent. The coarse, rigid, brown hairs are up to 2 mm long. The blade is 4-13 cm long x 3-8 cm wide, triangular, erect, persistent, strongly mucronate at the apex, abaxially strigose to glabrous, adaxially conspicuously nerved and pubescent between the nerves. The margins are ciliate with hyaline, deciduous hairs, up to 2.5 mm long. The junction with the sheath is slightly curved to horizontal; the inner ligule is 0.8-1 mm long, glabrous, stramineous, ciliolate along the margin. The outer ligule is absent. Synflorescences (compound inflorescences) are 30-40 cm long, usually terminating in leafless branches, consisting of 6-9 coflorescences (clusters of flowers that terminate a lateral branch of the synflorescence) with 4-7 multiflowered pseudospikelets per coflorescence. The rachis is glabrous. Pseudospikelets are 2-6 cm long x 0.4-0.6 cm wide, robust and erect, straight, corpulent, green when young, later brown to stramineous. They consist of a subtending bract, a prophyll, 1-2 glumes, 1-2 sterile lemmas, and 2-6 fertile florets, in a terminal rudimentary anthecium. There are 6 stamens; anthers are 5-8 mm long x 0.5-1 mm wide, yellowish brown. The ovary is 2-4 mm long x 1-2 mm wide, fusiform, glabrous and shiny; the style is 2-3 mm long, hispidulous, darker than the ovary, with 3 plumose stigmas. These are 3 mm long and purple when young. Flowering occurs only every 25-30 years in spring and summer. The fruit is 9-12 mm long x 2.5-5 mm wide. It is an asymmetric fusiform caryopsis, brown in color, and glabrous. Propagation of this species can be achieved through growing seeds or rhizome division.

Aug 10, 2008

Caranday palm is a South American arecaceae palm native of Uruguayan and northeastern Argentine sabanas with a relative low height (up to 6 m tall) and 20-25 cm wide stems usually covered by remains of earlier foliage that act as a thick protective coat. Caranday leaves are about 1 m long, palmate, rounded, with a very rigid and spiny petiole. The leaflet segments are rigid, dark green to a more blue hue, with light green undersides. These are possibly the toughest leaves among arecaceae. As habitat altitude increases the foliage becomes more grayish, this is typical of mountain carandays. Flowers compose highly branched inflorescences located at the base of the lower living leaves. These contain up to 100 white hermaphrodite flowers 10 to 12 mm wide. This palm flowers in autumn. Fruits ripen towards the end of the next summer. They consist of subspherical yellow brownish drupes, 1 to 2 cm wide, with a thin fleshy mesocarp and a fibrous endocarp. Caranday is monoecious (having separate male and female reproductive units on the same plant), a feature common to the conifers but rare in angiosperms or flower plants.

Why bilingual? For starters, Spanish is my native tongue. Secondly, English is still the universal language and the blog is meant to be accessible for anyone on the globe who is into Nature conservancy; particularly in getting to know Uruguay's flora and fauna.

"Hunting is merely a cowardly circumlocution for the cowardy murder of fellow creatures who do not have a chance. Hunting is a variant of human mental illness" Theodore Heuss (First president of the Republic of Germany; 1884-1963)

"When I was twelve, I went hunting with my father and we shot a bird. He was laying there and something struck me. Why do we call this fun to kill this creature who was as happy as I was when I woke up this morning?" (American and Canadian football coach, 1925-)

"May I walk unceasingly on the banks of my river, may my soul repose on the branches of the trees which I planted, and may I may refresh myself under the shadow of my sycamore tree".Egyptian tomb inscription, circa 1400 AD

"We must protect the forests for our children, grandchildren and children yet to be born. We must protect the forests for those who can't speak for themselves such as the birds, other animals and the trees."Chief Edward Moody, Qwatsinas, Nuxalk Nation

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were... Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls: it tolls for thee".John Donne, English Metaphysical poet (1572 - 1631)